Inside Texas Q&A: No Rest for the Weary?

There’s always a lot to discuss this time of year but this week there’s even more than normal. Both Texas’ offense and defense are popular topics after this past week’s amazing fourth quarter comeback. There’s still plenty of consternation about the offensive line and ensuing lack of run game and pass protection. There’s more in-season coaching speculation than normal under Steve Sarkisian. And, Texas has serious injury concerns at the same time a Top 10 Vanderbilt readies to visit Austin.

Who will be the spy on Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia? – WaneHisler

They typically change up their spies so they aren’t as predictable. In a high leverage moment, probably Hill.

How much does a bumpy finish ending at 7-5 or 8-4 affect recruiting in today’s climate? – td1982

Well, that’s where the coaching carousel helps. UF and LSU are recruiting foes and they’re replacing. OU is about to have a hard landing. 

There are certain one-offs to be concerned about (Cooper and Miami, Turntine and A&M) but I’m not too worried on a macro level. 

They need to hold on to their guys while preserving capital for the portal. At this point the portal is so much more important.

Would a 7-5 season sour your views about Sark overall as a coach or would you more likely consider it a mulligan type of year until it happens again? – LonghornsLegend

I would simply roll most of it into his screw up of not taking any portal OL, and to a lesser extent RB. 

Mulligan type of year unless it happened again.

How many portal OL do we need for you to feel confident going into next season? Do we have a number 1 WR currently on campus or do we need to portal that as well? – TShakCFP

Four of varying degrees of quality. Not all need to start but they need to add competition and real depth.

I wouldn’t portal in a WR unless a higher upside, lower cost guy fell into their laps. A player that might have had 25 catches this year but is an obvious stud. There are much bigger issues than WR.

How many times have we seen open receivers but Arch not having time to get it to them (or just flat out missing the throw)? Fix the OL and the WRs will magically improve.

Eric, is it possible that portal additions contributes to culture, by adding competition? Compare “LB” where Spence was added to a good room, to “OL”, or “RB”where guys haven’t had to worry about new competitors entering the room. Does adding experienced guys force incumbent players to work with more of a focus? Is it a mistake to exempt any position group from portal adds, ever? Are adds from the portal a good tool to hold complacency at bay? -TaylorTRoom

Yes. Just look at how much competition there is on defense compared to offense. We always talk about the value of competition and Sark has, too. Not only are many of the starters bad on the OL there’s no competition behind them. And, if there’s no competition, there’s no depth.

Join Inside Texas for Market-Leading Texas Longhorns Football coverage!

InsideTexas.com provides just what passionate Texas fans expect: Market-leading coverage of Longhorns athletics and recruiting.

Join the best Texas fan community and receive all the benefits that come with it:

• Elite team and recruiting coverage of the program you love
• Immediate access to any Longhorns break news
• Exclusive insider practice reports and year-round team info as well as board Q&A’s with IT staff
• High level discourse with the most passionate and informed Longhorns fans across multiple board forums.
• Market leading team analysis for those who are looking to increase their understanding of Steve Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski’s preferred concepts
• So much more!

SIGN UP and ensure no Longhorns information gets by you: Join Inside Texas community today!

Talk about this story and many more with fellow Longhorn diehards on the Members Only forum.